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Student president and vice president plan to finish year strong

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This Spring semester student government president Horacio Villarreal plans to influence more students to join student government. Villarreal also hopes to continue promoting school spirit by creating an intramural basketball season against Texas A&M.

Though Student Government president Horacio Villarreal and vice president Ugeo Williams have not set concrete plans for the second half of the school year, Villarreal said the pair will maintain their platform goals of inclusion, safety, service and accessibility.

Villarreal said they will maintain programs such as upper-division tutoring and continue attempts to engage students in spring athletics and student life overall.

The duo created a cultural showcase during the fall semester to show the diversity of students. Williams said he plans to continue educating students on cultural diversity by getting them involved in discussions surrounding social justice.

A social justice program was mandatory several years ago for incoming freshman at orientation, but was switched to an optional program. Now, the mandatory campus safety course at orientation covers dating violence, academic stress and various other obstacles of college life, but Williams said there are other things the University could touch base on such as a cultural component.

“You may know one thing about a particular culture, or one particular sexual identity, but that doesn’t mean you know them all,” Williams said. “It is a growing process that everyone will learn and interact with as they grow in the world.”

Villarreal also promoted upper-division tutoring through the Sanger Learning Center. He said he plans to continue this program in the spring and make sure it is
running smoothly.

Biology junior Benjamin Choy said he went to one-on-one tutoring at Sanger for his lower division classes and has since used it for upper division genetics.

“If you’re having trouble in your classes or understanding a concept, you don’t have to just go to office hours or the TA because Sanger is open all the time,” Choy said.

Another platform goal of Villarreal and Williams’ campaign was to promote school spirit. Williams said they plan to work with the marketing and athletics office to encourage more students to attend spring sports, such as basketball, tennis and track.

To encourage school spirit, Villarreal created the Lone Star Intramural Showdown. This program allowed students in intramural flag football to continue the age-old rivalry against Texas A&M. Villarreal said he plans to continue the program for intramural basketball season in the spring.

According to Williams, one of the duo’s main goals is to see more students gravitate toward being part of student government. Williams, who wasn’t in student government until his junior year, said he hopes students will not give up if they aren’t in the organization their first year.